96 THE EASTERN OR BURMESE PEA-FOWL. 



line past, and 0*15 in front, of the orifice of the ear to within 

 0*35 of the top of the head, from thence curving round over 

 the eye, and about 0*2 above it, down to the point below the 

 nostrils already referred to ; the blue is brightest just behind 

 the eye. 



The chrome yellow extends as a broad irregular band over 

 the posterior portion of the face, immediately behind the blue. 

 It is widest on the cheeks, where it may be 0'8 wide, and 

 narrowest at the aural orifice, which it encloses, where it may 

 be 0'45 wide. It begins at the gape and goes up as high as the 

 blue. A broad patch of small scaly metallic green feathers runs 

 across the blue from near the gape up to and just touching the 

 lower margin of the eye. A line of similar feathers runs imme- 

 diately over the eye, curving up a little posteriorly. A tiny 

 patch of somewhat similar feathers above the aural orifice, and 

 it is about this part that the chrome yellow is brightest ; at the 

 line of junction of the blue and yellow, the colours become 

 slightly intermingled, the blue being perceptibly tinged with 

 yellow, and the yellow with blue, producing a dirty greenish 

 shade. 



The Plate, though very fair, is not as a whole green enough, 

 and is on too small a scale to show the colouring of the face well ; 

 the blue of the latter is much too pale, and the legs are too 

 light coloured. 



It may be well to mention, in case the plate does not make 

 this sufficiently clear, that the Eastern Peacock is distinguished 

 at a glance by the peculiar colouring of the face just described, 

 and by its long occipital crest of straight, stiff, narrow feathers, 

 with the greater portion of the webs, except just at the base, 

 metallic blue, shaded with green ; the longest of these crest 

 feathers is sometimes nearly five inches in length. The entire 

 forehead, crown, and anterior part of the occiput is covered with 

 closely set scaly feathers, black at their bases, of which little is 

 seen, and tipped with brilliant metallic blue, shaded with green. 

 The feathers of the neck, all round, and breast are brown at the 

 bases, which are completely hidden by the overlapping of the 

 feathers, and at the tip have a broad band of bronze, greenish 

 in some lights, vinous in others. Outside, this band is exces- 

 sively narrowly margined with black, and inside this black line 

 is an equally narrow golden green one ; inside the bronze band 

 the feathers are deep blue at the shaft, shading off to bright 

 green ; on the front of the neck nothing but the bronze band is 

 seen. On the back of the lower neck just the points of the blue 

 are visible, and on the breast the whole of the blue and green is 

 more or less exhibited. Just where the head joins the neck at 

 the sides and in front, the feathers are deep violet blue, greener, 

 however, in some lights, tipped with green and some of them 

 with bronze. 



